I’m so grateful that things are almost back to normal now. We can do our annual family tradition again of Visita Iglesia.

Last year, it was our first time to do it again since the lockdown. This year, conditions were much better and the COVID-19 restrictions were fewer.

Since our eldest child would be busy on Maundy Thursday with choir practice, I suggested that we do our Visita Iglesia days ahead. We decided that we will do it on Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday. I came up with a list of old churches that our kids have not visited yet and showed it to my husband.

We usually do our Visita Iglesia in one day only. But this year, because of some limitations, like our eldest child needing to be back in our parish for choir practice again at 7:30 PM and he needs to eat dinner before that plus my husband having a meeting at work (although online), we decided to cut short our visit to various churches and resolved to finish the rest the following day.

On Day 1 of our Visita Iglesia, we visited 5 churches in Manila that were relatively close to each other. We started in the morning and ended at around past 3 PM.

The first church we visited was the Minor Basilica of San Sebastian Church or Shrine of Nuestra Senora del Monte Carmelo or Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This church was completed in 1891. I included this in our list because of its architecture aside from being one of the oldest churches in the Philippines. It’s the only all-steel church in the Philippines. We loved the many stained glass windows around the church, which were imported from Germany, too. It is a National Historical Landmark and a National Cultural Treasure. The church was designed to combine Earthquake Baroque and Neo-Gothic style architecture for the previous versions were destroyed by fires and earthquakes. Sadly, the structural integrity of the church is now threatened because of the corrosion that has taken place over the years. You will see scaffolding inside the church and rusty pillars. I was still in college when I first visited this church during a Visita Iglesia with my college friends. I really hope and pray that they get to restore and maintain this church for future generations to see it.

This is where we parked our vehicle. We planned to just walk to the next church which my husband estimated to be less than a 10-minute walk. We’re glad that the guard allowed us to leave our vehicle briefly while we visited the next church on our list.

We prayed the first and second Stations of the Cross in this church.

The second church that we visited was the San Beda Chapel or the Abbey Church of Our Lady of Montserrat. This is within the San Beda College, Manila campus. It was completed in 1925. This church also has Neo-Gothic design outside. But inside, the design is Neo-Baroque. We loved the paintings/murals inside the church! It also has beautiful stained glass doors. We were also happy to see that it has a pipe organ.

Like me, you must be wondering why it is called a chapel when it is as big as or even bigger than many churches in the Philippines. Well, my guess is because it serves as the chapel of San Beda College. I also learned that it serves as the abbey church of the Benedictine community that resides in the abbey near the church.

We prayed the third and fourth Stations of the Cross in this church.

Visiting this church enabled us to show our kids the historical Mendiola Street. We also asked them to pose in front of the sign after our church visit.

Based on my original plan, we were supposed to eat late lunch after we visit the fifth church on our list. However, we left home later than my original plan. The kids were already hungry on our way to the third church. Hence, we decided to have our lunch break at a Jollibee store near Quiapo Church (Quinta Market branch). After eating, we walked to Quiapo Church.

The parking lot behind Quinta Market was full when we arrived. My husband dropped the kids and me off at Jollibee. We were in a hurry so we forgot to bring our umbrella and baseball caps. We left them all in our vehicle and which was parked relatively far. We only realized this when it was time to walk to the churches.

The third church we visited was Quiapo Church or the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene. Although the current structure was built in 1939 and is relatively new compared to the other churches on our list, I chose to include this because this is one of the most popular and visited churches in Manila or in the Philippines. Thousands of people flock to this church during the translacion because of their devotion to the Black Nazarene. I wanted my kids to see it in real life and not just in the news or video footages. Aside from that, the earliest version of this church was built in the 1500s. Sadly, it was burned by Limahong when he came to the country. The next churches built after it were destroyed also by fire, earthquake and the war. The church has a Mexican Baroque edifice. It was painted cream after it was burned down. The church was also expanded to its current form in 1984.

The wearing of face masks is required before you can enter this church. This is the only church where this protocol was implemented. This must be due to the number of people who go to the church daily.

We prayed the fifth and sixth Stations of the Cross in this church. Our youngest child and I also had our Confession here. It was an answered prayer for me. I really wanted to go to Confession before the Triduum and I was hoping that there would be Confession in one of the churches we will visit. So, I was joyful when I saw people lining up at the Confessional.

From Quiapo Church, we walked to the next church.

The fourth church that we visited was the Sta. Cruz Church or the Shrine of the Archdiocesan Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament. It is also known as the Our Lady of the Pillar Church. It also has a Baroque style architecture. Saint Ezekiel Moreno became the Parish Priest of this church in the 1800s. Because of our visit to this church, we have now visited 2 churches associated with Saint Ezekiel Moreno.

I liked the purple color of their altar.

We prayed the seventh and eighth Stations of the Cross in this church.

Sta. Cruz Church is actually within walking distance of the next church on our list. It was just near the entrance of Chinatown. Nevertheless, we decided to walk back to our vehicle and change our clothes because we were all sweating. We hydrated ourselves, too. From there, we looked for a nearby parking lot close to the next church.

After changing our tops and drinking lots of water, we proceeded to Chinatown by car.

The fifth church that we visited was Binondo Church or the Minor Basilica and National Shrine of Saint Lorenzo Ruiz. The first church was first constructed in 1596. But it was destroyed several times by earthquakes, typhoons, and war like the other old churches in Manila. The current church structure still retained its Spanish and European Baroque design. But only the octagonal bell tower remained of the original structure.

I included this in our list because the first Filipino Saint, Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, served in this parish during the Spanish rule in the Philippines. I wanted my kids to visit this shrine in his honor. Moreover, my husband and kids are Filipino-Chinese like San Lorenzo Ruiz.

The church was huge and spectacular! It had both stained glass windows and paintings inside. It was also unique because of its pink color inside and outside.

We prayed the ninth and tenth Stations of the Cross in this church.

We also had our photos taken at Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz outside where there is a tall statue of the Saint and there is a big fountain.

We had merienda or afternoon snacks at a nearby Chowking branch after having our photos taken at Plaza San Lorenzo. We had halo-halo, siomai and buchi.

On Day 2 of our Visita Iglesia, we decided to go in the afternoon since we only needed to visit two churches and we wanted the weather to be less hot. We left at around 3 PM. The last two churches were inside Intramuros.

The first church we visited on Day 2, which is the sixth church on our list, was San Agustin Church or Archdiocesan Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation and Cincture. It is the oldest stone church in the Philippines and was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The adobe stones used to build this church came from Meycauayan in Bulacan and from Binangonan and San Mateo in Rizal. It has a Baroque style also with paintings of moldings, rosettes, and sunken panels that look like three-dimensional carvings.

There were Stations of the Cross prepared for pilgrims or tourists who are doing the Visita Iglesias in the courtyard. But there were also Stations of the Cross images inside the church. We prayed the Stations of the Cross outside because there was already a Mass inside the church.

The last and seventh church that we visited was the Manila Cathedral or Minor Basilica and Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The Manila Cathedral is the Mother of all Churches, Cathedrals and Basilicas of the Philippines. It is the Premier Cathedral of the Philippines and also the Premiere Basilica of the country. It is the Premier Cathedral for it is the very first one and it is the Premier Basilica for it was the Pope who initiated its elevation into a cathedral, unlike the other cathedrals in the country.

We wanted to visit it before the pandemic when we had a field trip in Intramuros. But, it was closed at that time. Thus, we were glad and thankful that we got to visit it now with our kids. We prayed the eleventh and twelfth Stations of the Cross at the cathedral instead of praying them at San Agustin because we wanted to make sure that we get to take photos of the facades of both Intramuros churches while the sun is still out.

The current cathedral was built in 1958 only. Do you know that this is already the 8th version of the cathedral? The very first cathedral was built in 1581 by the first-ever Bishop of Manila. Unfortunately, like many old churches, it was destroyed by fire. You can read about the evolution of the Manila Cathedral in the infographic below. This was inside the Manila Cathedral also and my husband took a photo of it.

On our walk back to San Agustin, we passed by Plazuela de Santa Isabel. It has a sculpture that was made in honor of the memory of the countless people, men, women, and children, who perished in the war. Many of these people were buried in common graves. Still, there were those who didn’t get buried because their bodies were completely burned or crushed during World War 2.

We bought donuts to celebrate our win of completing our Visita Iglesias this year! We got home just in time so that our eldest child could eat dinner and attend his choir practice.

It has been a tiring two days for us, but it was worth the sacrifice! It was not only a spiritual experience for all of us. It was also a field trip where we all learned about our culture and history and many other things. I highly recommend this kind of activity to Catholic families.

This is also a good field trip for families who are not Catholics. You are free to visit these churches. Just make sure that you observe the proper attire and decorum when inside these places of worship. No wearing of shorts, sleeveless tops, and plunging or revealing clothes. Make a reverent bow in the middle aisles when going inside and before leaving and speak in hushed voices so as not to disturb those who are praying.